A legal expert last night told the Daily Star that maths teacher Forrest could also face a short sentence if he too pleads guilty to abducting the schoolgirl he ran away with.

But he added the sentence could be increased to five years or even more.

The lawyer said: “In my view he might be looking at four to five years but much shorter sentences have been given out.”

Forrest fled to France with the teenager on a cross-Channel ferry from Dover to Calais on September 20.

They then dumped Forrest’s black Ford Fiesta in Paris and took a train 400 miles to Bordeaux, arriving on September 21.

But Forrest, 30, was arrested in the city in the south of France on Friday after a Europe-wide manhunt.

Police closed in on him after a tip-off that he had been spotted in the city centre.

He was said to have been caught out trying to get a job as a barman under the fake name Jack Dean.

Forrest will appear in a Bordeaux court tomorrow for an extradition hearing.

He had apparently been trying to secure a job at a Brit boozer called HMS Victory.

But the manager of the bar recognised Forrest from media coverage of his journey to France and invited him to return the next day.

It was then that police appeared and arrested him. He is alleged to have presented employers with a false CV in which he claimed that he was called Jack Francis Dean and was 28 years old, although he is 30.

The CV claimed that he was a trained journalist who had been working as an administrator for a media company.

Fake

But it makes no mention of the fact Forrest is a teacher at the Bishop Bell Church of England School, in Eastbourne.

Forrest is said to have also used another fake name, Jack Grant.

And his bank account had not been used, making it harder for police to track him down.

It was also reported over the weekend that the 15-year-old girl travelling with him travelled out of the country using his wife’s passport.

His European arrest warrant stated that the passport of Forrest’s wife Emily, 31, was missing from her home.

Ferry records are said to show that a Ms E Forrest was apparently on board.